Dental study casts are an integral part of a dentist's understanding of how a patient's teeth and bite function in a static relationship. This static relationship serves three important functions. The primary function is one of a diagnostic function for interpretation of any discrepancies or problems that exist within the bite relationship. The second function is educational. For example, the study casts provide better communication as a concrete model while helping the patient understand any discrepancies that may exist in the way their teeth function in that static relationship. Third, the dental study casts serve an important medical/legal function in defining the pre-existing static bite relationship prior to the performance of any work. This work can be defined either from an oral surgical standpoint, prosthetic standpoint or orthodontic/periodontal standpoint.
Yet another function is to provide a model when creating orthodontic devices. In the prior art, impressions are taken of the patient's teeth with a study cast or model taken from the impression. It is also known that either the impression and/or study cast can be electronically digitized. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,217,334, commonly assigned to the assignee of the present application describes a scanning process. U.S. Pat. No. 6,217,334 is hereby incorporated herein by reference and made a part hereof. By digitizing the model, a set of electronic data of the patient's teeth and surrounding soft tissue is created which can be electronically manipulated, displayed, stored and transmitted.
Bonding brackets to teeth for the purpose of orthodontic treatment is known. One method of securing the brackets to the teeth comprises manually locating the brackets by hand. Another method involves manually placing the brackets on a model of the patient's teeth, transferring the brackets to a tray and transferring the brackets from the tray to the correct location on the patient's teeth. This latter method is commonly known as indirect bonding. While indirect bonding generally provides an accurate location of the brackets, it does not take advantage of advances in the electronic imaging of teeth.
Therefore, there arises a need in the art to provide a system for providing a scanned image set of data of a patient's teeth, displaying the scanned image set to generate a virtual model, storing the finish positions of the virtual model teeth after manipulation of the teeth into a final desired position, storing electronically generated bracket marker points on the teeth of the virtual model (e.g., where the physical brackets may be placed in order to move the physical teeth into a final, desired position), and automatically placing brackets onto the physical location of the marker points on a model, wherein an indirect bonding tray can be created. The present invention directly addresses and overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art.